Northwell Health installed nine endowed chairs and professorships at its third annual Celebration of Excellence event, including six newly created endowed positions thanks to the generosity of Northwell benefactors.
Endowment support is an integral part of Northwell’s Outpacing the Impossible campaign, an ambitious $1 billion comprehensive fundraising effort to fuel innovation to advance health care and support Northwell’s promise to the people it serves. The campaign was publicly launched in October 2018 and to date, has raised more than $880 million with $162 million raised toward endowment. Since the launch of the campaign, support from donors has created 13 endowed professorships and chairs.
The virtual event brought together philanthropists, physician-scientists and educators to recognize the partnership between Northwell’s benefactors and the clinical experts who are shaping the future of health care through excellence in academic medicine. The program also featured an impact conversation with benefactors Margaret Crotty and Rory Riggs and recipient Maureen White, RN, MBA, executive vice president and chief nurse executive at Northwell Health and the Margaret Crotty and Rory Riggs Clinical Chair in Nursing – the first nursing endowment in Northwell’s history.
“A gift to build endowment allows us to elevate recruitment and bring the most talented researchers, clinicians and scholars to Northwell Health,” said Brian T. Lally, Northwell’s senior vice president and chief development officer. “I’m grateful to our donors who choose to invest in our work and believe in what we can accomplish together.”
Why endowments are important to Northwell’s future
Endowed gifts enable Northwell to recognize outstanding faculty accomplishments, support groundbreaking research, and recruit renowned clinicians and researchers to the organization. They provide financial stability in perpetuity, which allows Northwell to make strategic investments to propel new research and advance medicine in areas where it’s needed most. Endowed professorships and chairs carry significant prestige in the scientific, academic and medical fields.
“Endowment has a profound impact on medicine, allowing our clinicians, researchers and educators to look at health care differently and fueling the innovation that helps save lives,” said Lawrence G. Smith, MD, MACP, executive vice president and physician-in-chief for Northwell Health and dean of the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. “Our ability to meet the healthcare needs of the communities we serve is unrivaled. The generosity of our donors, coupled with our vast team of experts, makes this possible.”
Introducing the recipients of Northwell’s newly established professorships and chairs and the benefactors who support them:
- Jeff Boyd, PhD, has been named the inaugural Carol and Arnold Wolowitz Professor in Cancer Research, established by Carol Wolowitz. A renowned expert in women’s cancer genetics research, Dr. Boyd is vice president, chief scientific officer and director of the Northwell Health Cancer Institute’s Center for Genomic Medicine and director of the Institute of Cancer Research at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
- Joseph Conigliaro, MD, MPH, has been appointed the Manuel H. and Claire Barron Professor of Medicine, established by Manuel and Claire Barron. As the division chief of General Internal Medicine in the Department of Medicine and the department’s vice chair for Academic Affairs, Dr. Conigliaro drives Northwell’s academic mission in clinical excellence, teaching and research. He is also a professor at the Institute of Health System Science at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research.
- Richard Alan Furie, MD, chief of Northwell’s Division of Rheumatology and a professor at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, will serve as the Marilyn and Barry Rubenstein Chair in Rheumatology. Established by Marilyn and Barry Rubenstein, this endowment will support the division’s research to treat the world’s toughest autoimmune diseases.
- Felicia Hill-Briggs, PhD, ABPP, has been named the inaugural Simons Distinguished Chair in Clinical Research, established by the Simons Foundation, which supports discovery-driven scientific research. Dr. Hill-Briggs, vice president of Prevention at Northwell Health and a professor at the Institute of Health System Science at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, will ensure clinical research continues to grow across Northwell Health.
- Nicholas A. Sgaglione, MD, senior vice president and executive director of the Northwell Health Orthopaedic Institute, will serve as the Mauri-Martocci Professor of Orthopaedic Surgery. Established by Thomas and Barbara Dooley, the endowment will advance orthopaedics across the health system, and is named in honor of Thomas Mauri, MD, who recently retired from a distinguished career at Northwell Health, and his wife, Mae Martocci.
- Maureen T. White, RN, MBA, executive vice president and chief nurse executive for Northwell Health, has been named the Margaret Crotty and Rory Riggs Clinical Chair in Nursing, the first nursing endowment in Northwell’s history and one of only a few in the country. Established by philanthropists Margaret Crotty and Rory Riggs, the award will directly benefit the work of Northwell nurses and continue efforts to advance health equity in communities.
In addition, the following clinicians and researchers have been newly appointed to existing endowed professorships:
- Said Ibrahim, MD, MPH, MBA, is the David J. Greene Professor of Medicine, endowed by Helen and Alan I. Greene. Dr. Ibrahim is the new chair of the Department of Medicine and the senior vice president of Northwell Health’s Medicine Service Line, where he leads patient-centered research on healthcare disparities.
- Philippe Marambaud, PhD, a professor at the Institute of Molecular Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, has been appointed the Leonard Litwin and Donald Zucker Professor of Geriatric Psychiatry. Established by Leonard and Ruth Litwin and Donald and Barbara Zucker, this endowment allows Dr. Marambaud to continue the legacy of the late Peter Davies, PhD, the inaugural chair who worked tirelessly to find a cure for Alzheimer’s disease.
- Lopa Mishra, MD, co-director of the Institute for Bioelectronic Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research, has been named the Susan and Herman Merinoff Distinguished Chair in Translational Medicine, established by Susan Merinoff and her late husband, Herman. Dr. Mishra is focused on developing novel therapies and clinical trials centered on the emerging field of bioelectronic medicine, a convergence of molecular medicine, neuroscience and bioengineering.
“Endowed support is extraordinarily important to the success of the health system; it promotes innovation and excellence, enhances research, accelerates new discoveries and cures, and helps improve education and teaching,” said Michael J. Dowling, Northwell’s president and chief executive officer. “We are very fortunate to attract high-caliber talent, who help us look forward to the future of health care with optimism and hope, and we are grateful for our donors who make it possible.”
To view the impact conversation and/or to learn more about endowment support and Northwell’s Outpacing the Impossible campaign, visit https://give.northwell.edu/endowment.